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Windows 8 USB 3.0 Problems

General discussion

I have run into many USB 3.0 problems across multiple devices and computers running Windows 8 Pro 64-bit. After many headaches and sleepless nights I think I have narrowed all the problems down to one thing in Device Manager:
"Intel (R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller -0100 (Microsoft)”

The controllers (Multiple Computers) have had problems with all the Microsoft Drivers including the most resent: 6.2.9200.16548 3/1/2013

Is there a new Microsoft driver coming out soon? How about an Intel driver for Windows 8 like the one they have for 7?

Am I the only one who is being slammed with this problem from every windows 8 machine I touch? I have not seen a large amount of discussion on the internet with such a seemingly big thing like USB 3.0 not working with Windows 8!

All replies

You are not the only one. I have been fighting this issue with USB 3.0 for almost a year. I built a new machine with a gigabyte UD5H motherboard. This motherboard uses an Intel Z77 chipset. It has an intel
xhci controller and uses a via VL810 hub for distribution. It has 10 USB 3.0 ports. I am running Windows 8 professional 64. I have been using 12 Seagate Backup Plus drives of various sizes with USB 3.0 interfaces for external storage. My problems consisted
of the following. Failure to connect at all. Connecting but running at USB 2.0 or lower speeds. Connecting and starting to transfer and then disconnecting. I finally traced this issue to faulty USB 3.0 cables. I tested all 12 of my cables and found 6
of them to be bad. and the other 6 to be intermittent. I bought a package of 5 of these 3 foot micro B cables on Ebay for 14 dollars and have tested each on each drive on each port of my machine with no issues. Write speeds to each of these drives from
an internal drive averages 95 mbs. reading and copying from one if these drives to an internal drive averages 125mbs.

When I first built this machine I bought a Silverstone Front Panel Drive Bay with 4 USB 3.0 ports to connect to my internal motherboard headers. I could never get this panel to work properly. I used the
front panel connector with 2 ports supplied with my motherboard and it works perfectly. I have been unable to find the issue with the Silverstone Panel it appears to be well made. I have since bought an additional panel from China to add additional USB
3.0 ports to the front and it works perfectly.

I bought a Corsair Flash Voyager 64gb USB 3.0 USB drive and it only works only intermittently on some of my USB 3.0 ports. On others it is simply not recognized. This same flash drive works perfectly on my
Windows 7 machine. There is a fix on the web that lets you revert to the Windows 7 drivers in Windows 8. With the windows 7 drivers this flash drives works OK on my Windows 8 machine. (http://plugable.com/2012/12/01/windows-8-and-intel-usb-3-0-host-controllers).
I have another Corsair USB 3.0 flash drive that works perfectly wit both Windows 8 and Windows 7.

My conclusions regarding these issues are: The USB 3.0 specification has been implemented carelessly by both Microsoft and the hardware vendors. Most
people are using USB 3.0 hardware as USB 2.0 or have just given up. How do you pin these issues down to the true fault when the motherboard maker says it's not their problem, Intel says it's not their issue, Microsoft says it's not theirs, and the hardware
vendors tell you it's not theirs. Most people don't have the time or the knowledge to deal with these issues, and the manufacturers just want to keep selling.

I'm just wondering if there is any news on this. I received a USB 3.0 IOMega eGo 1 TB drive today, which, based on a few tries, works without problem on the USB 2 port of my HP laptop with Windows 8, but hoses everything when connected to the USB 3.0 port.
Shutting down and restarting provides only a brief respite, because when trying to copy files from internal drive to eGo, it hoses the whole system again. I'm gonna try the BIOS change. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll have to use the USB 2.0 connection
until this is resolved. Thanks anyway for bringing it out.

I too am suffering the same problem, we have dell OptiPlex 7010 with "Intel (R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller -0100 (Microsoft)”same thing, we have 100 computers all doing
it!!! causing major issues in our company, I see that Microsoft have not yet came up with a solution? do they even read these posts?

we are getting this issue when connecting more than one USB device, one for the most part (but not all the time) is ok , but when you try another usb storage device, your get a disco.

I own a Sony Vaio Pro 11 and facing this issue as well. The Windows 8 driver for the Intel (R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller is highly unstable and makes my Iomega external USB 3.0 hard disk corrupt. Then I would have to use a different Windows 8 laptop
that is not using the said driver to repair the drive.

Running chkdsk on my USB 3.0 external drive will result in slowness and disconnects. Running chkdsk on the same drive on a different Windows 8 laptop repairs the drive in 2 minutes.

Intel's driver website insists on using Windows 8 drivers supplied by Microsoft and I think this is a big mistake. Intel should supply the driver for this host controller themselves.

I will try the suggested workaround mentioned in the original topic and see if it works.

EDIT: I found another solution to this. I used a powered Logitech USB 2.0 hub and it is now stable.

Same problem here, I just bought a MSI GT70 2od, and it's randomly disconnect the USB 3.0 drive or slow down the speed to almost 0 for some minutes. I'm using the Intel
(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller -0100 (Microsoft) version 6.2.9200.16628. Someone was found some fix for this problem?

Yup. Same here. I thought it was the drive -- 1TB Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0. Brand new Fujitsu T732 with fresh install of Win 8 Ho...I MEAN:
PRO. Have not tried the BIOS work-around, but will now. Saw a work-around where one uninstalls the driver, disables driver updating, then installs the Win
7 pro driver. This, however, is an epic fail.

I thought USB 3.0 was the latest tech and that Windows 8- any version- was supposed to employ it with no issue.

Very disappointed. I do know that Linux distros can utilize the technology. +1 Linux.

Be really careful with this one. I tried it on my new Dell XPS, because yes, I'm having major issues with the USB 3.0 ports, but because this PC has no other connections, other than USB, when Windows first starts after this change it shuts them down
(all USB ports) until you can make the final changes, so you have no access to the computer at all. I had no choice but to do a system restore back to before the change.

BTW, the Dell tech support had no clue about anything, including how to do a system restore back to good known function in Windows 8. We had to figure that out and tell him.

If you have a PS2 port for your mouse/keyboard, this may work, not sure.

<blockquote><p>This solved it for me. It was a pain, but I'm getting transfers of 130 mb/sec now with the Intel driver. Drives aren't disconnecting randomly either.</p><p>http://plugable.com/2012/12/01/windows-8-and-intel-usb-3-0-host-controllers</p></blockquote>I
j<br />

I have to say that your solution works great for me. Haven't got any issues with usb not working during the process.

This problem persists for a year now(!) It nearly destroyed a working file system here because the device was resetted during operation and stalled after that. That was not funny. I have tested this in other operating systems incl. Linux distributions and
there was no such problem with USB 3.0 devices. Intel support made clear that they have no plans on releasing a USB driver for Windows 8.1.

This is a big issue for professional developers like me. Reliability is the most important thing here and that renders Windows 8.1 unusable in a professional environment. One year is plenty of time for such a critical problem.

So, how long am I supposed to use Linux whenever I need to copy to portable USB 3 harddisks? Maybe I should stick with it in the first place...

Microsoft are pushing us new and " better " operating systems and Intel are selling us the bits and pieces but the companies are not working together in order to provide customers with reliable machines.

About 9 months has passed since your letter above and there are still no new drivers for laptops which require them....I think the whole thing isoutrageous...........NEVER will I walk right
past anApple store again.........

Ok so as already stated by some in this thread, the only reliably working solution is to install the Windows 7 drivers from Intel.

The afore mentioned site http://plugable.com/2012/12/01/windows-8-and-intel-usb-3-0-host-controllers holds the key. However, the supplied inf files are obsolete regarding the newest drivers. I had some spare time the last evening and though being reluctant
first I decided that there is (and probably will not be) a better way. Here is how you can make the most current Intel drivers (v. 2.5.3.34 from February 2014) work. Note that I have tested this only with the 64 bit version though I would imagine that it would
work in the 32bit version as well. However, do this on your own risk!

1. Download the driver from Intel and extract it to some place

3. Edit the inf-Files (e.g., iusb3hub.inf and iusb3hub.inf)

Search for this line

[Intel.NTAMD64.6.2]

or for 32bit version

[Intel.NTx86.6.2]

This entry is for Windows 8 and followed by blanks. Remove the line!

Search for this line

[Intel.NTAMD64.6.1]

or respectively for

[Intel.NTx86.6.1]

This is the entry for Windows 7 (Note the '1' at the end) and its followed by the necessary information. Exchange the '1' with '2'! This makes Windows 8 go the right path on install.

Now search for this line

CatalogFile=<driver catalog file>

Note that <driver catalog file> depends on the inf file you are modifying. For iusb3xhc.inf it is "iusb3xhc.cat". Remove this line, otherwise Windows will refuse to install the driver as it recognizes that the inf has been tampered with.

3. Install the modifed driver

You can follow the guide on http://plugable.com/2012/12/01/windows-8-and-intel-usb-3-0-host-controllers now. Short version:

Reboot Windows a second time having driver signature enforcement disabled!

Now, there will be a new unknown device in device manager. In details tab you should see ...VID_8086...

For this device you install your modified iusb3hub.inf and ignore Windows complaining!

Reboor again (the usual way) and everything should be fine from now on.

One Note of WARNING though: During this process USB3.0 will be unusable. This means that a mouse and a keyboard
connected to it won't work either. USB2.0 plugs should not be affected.

Some final words

I find it verry irritating that Microsoft ignores customer complains about their crappy USB 3.0 driver while knowing that Intel has perfect working drivers at their disposal. At the same time, Intel probably knowing that their drivers work for Windows 8
tells customers to complain to Microsoft. All could be so easy which makes me think there is some political problem going on between Microsoft and Intel now being all bitchy.

You would think a new machine with no other ports than 2 USB3's would have been tested better. I've updated to all the latest A06 firmware and the latest drivers from the Dell site. I've tried three different disk docking stations and several different
hard disks, and all of them have the same random disconnect issues. Search for
"dell usb3 problems" and you will see this is a very long running issue.

This is Josh at Plugable Technologies. We've been working with Microsoft behind the scenes and rest assured they are aware an issue exists. That being said, when and if we will see a solution is hard to say. We don't have any direct involvement in driver
development, but we've been reporting our findings to Microsoft and hopefully they will be able to analyze the data and come up with a solution.

We're involved mainly because our primary product line is comprised of USB docking stations and hubs and we have run into this issue. (It also helps that we're basically next door neighbors as we're both located in Bellevue, WA)

At first we suspected it might have been an issue with the firmware on our hub chipsets but after many different test cases we have narrowed this down to what we believe is a driver issue. This issue does not appear to happen on Windows 7 but can eventually
be reproduced on the same computer with Windows 8 equipped with an Intel USB 3.0 controller. You just need enough USB devices to make it happen.

My main workstation is a 128GB Surface Pro 2 and I too have run into this issue many times. I have to be very selective about what devices I have attached. I believe the reason us Surface users see the issue is because almost every device in the Surface
Pro 2 is attached through USB. I've also had this issue happen on an older Sony Vaio but far less frequently (less built in USB devices).

Bluetooth

WiFi

Audio

Touch sensor

Gyro sensor

Ambient light sensor

Micro SD reader

Front webcam

Rear webcam

I'm sure I'm forgetting some other possibilities...

I currently have the following connected to my Surface:

Plugable UD-3900 universal docking station

Plugable USB3-HUB4AC1 4 port USB 3.0 hub

Plugable PSS-SDH1 hard drive dock with integrated 4 port USB 3.0 hub

Two flash drives, keyboard, mouse

USB 2.0 external touch screen DisplayLink monitor

By my count here is the total number of actual devices (including hub chipsets) attached:

Excluding hub chipsets, I only have 8 devices attached externally. If I try to attach just one more device, I get the resources error. It doesn't seem to matter if I attach a USB 2.0 or 3.0 device. It appears to be a total device limit.

I'm not sure what we've learned here, this is just a lunchtime ramble."

Most problems arise from Via Labs Chipsets and possibly contacts(pins) issues on port(9 pins exist). Via chipsets on HUB's have no support since December 2012, and there is no way to contact them. They don't provide support even at manufactures for their
controllers or HUBs. The easiest way to install drivers for what ever controller is to remove any Via hub from PC then Uninstall whatever eXtensible Host 0100 (Microsoft) driver from device manager, do not search for devices and just run the executable
from controller manufacturer for drivers. This worked for me with Etron controller. But plugging back Via Hub caused other issues like big windows 8.1 boot delay or no large file read or write on hard disks connected only on hub. USB 3.0 technology is worst ever
and they do not intend to solve.

I have run into many USB 3.0 problems across multiple devices and computers running Windows 8 Pro 64-bit. After many headaches and sleepless nights I think I have narrowed all the problems down to one thing in Device Manager:
"Intel (R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller -0100 (Microsoft)”

The controllers (Multiple Computers) have had problems with all the Microsoft Drivers including the most resent: 6.2.9200.16548 3/1/2013

Is there a new Microsoft driver coming out soon? How about an Intel driver for Windows 8 like the one they have for 7?

Am I the only one who is being slammed with this problem from every windows 8 machine I touch? I have not seen a large amount of discussion on the internet with such a seemingly big thing like USB 3.0 not working with Windows 8!

I've had this same issue. It drove me insane for days until I found this forum post. Thank you.

Microsoft needs to understand this is a serious issue and ignoring it and not making people immediately aware that the issue exists has caused a serious loss of productivity and a serious gain of general misery. If they can't fix it, they should at
the very least acknowledge that there is a problem. I wasted a Friday night with HP support. Based on their advice, I created a backup image (no easy feat considering I had no external drive available) and was well on my way to restoring to a factory
image and potentially sending my laptop back for repair before I decided to scour the Internet one last time.

Please make fixing this issue a priority. Just get Intel to do it if you have to--but get it resolved. PLEASE.

I may have found a solution to problems relating to slow speed of USB 3.0 under Windows 8/8.1

The problem may have been because of the hybrid boot function of Windows 8 which actually hibernate the system during each shutdown rather than really shutting down the kernel. The hybrid boot simply put the kernel into hibernation and end your user session
during a system shut down. This may cause problem to windows loading up drivers for USB 3.0 controllers.

You can go to control panel > hardware and sound > power options > Choose what the power buttons do (On the left) > Changes settings that are currently unavailable (May require UAC) > Go to the bottom and uncheck Turn on fast startup (recommanded).

I have a serious issue with USB 3.0 and I would like to hope that somebody may have an answer even if they are unable to help.

I run three different computers, for three completely different purposes, they are of different makes, One is an Acer, the other is a Pryon and the third is a Toshiba, I also have 2 Toshiba laptops, one brand new running Windows 8, the other running
Windows 7. So basically what I am saying here probably has nothing to do with the systems I am running.

I guess a lot of people are getting swindled here by the hard drive manufacturers and everyone here seems to be blaming it on windows. I have spent thousands of dollars replacing all my old 2.0 drives (and some were getting a bit tired) with these new fangled
super duper super fast 3.0 drives. I think overall in the past year I have bought around thirty of them, mostly portables, but some desktop ones, all different brands too I might add, Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba and Samsung. This as you can imagine has
cost me a lot of money. The data I had on the old 2.0 drives equated to about 20 years of my life. Out of the roughly thirty I have bought, nine of them have bit the dust so to speak. Nearly all, once they become unusable, come up with the same thing, "The
last USB device you connected to this computer is not recognised.

As an example I will recount exactly what has occurred with the last one to fail, which was today about 4 hours ago as I write this. It was working perfectly fine this morning, never gave off one indication that it may be about to fail. Then after a restart
(which incidentally I am wondering if anyone else has this problem whereby once they shut down their computer they have to either power off or remove every USB 3.0 device from their unit before the computer will even start - this happens on two of mine - but
not on the Toshiba)

So I shut down, I am using a powered 9 port hub for most of the portables on this particular system (Pryon) which I have to power off so all the drives disappear else the computer just hangs at the boot screen until I have done this) I have one 2,0 disc
connected which I don't need to remove for the system to start.

Anyways once I have restarted the computer I then re-power up the hub and all the drives are loaded again and away I go. Well that was all good except when I checked one of my drives was missing from the File manager that I use (Salamander) and also not
showing in Windows Explorer either. So I trace down the culprit, unplug it and re-plug it back in. Lo and behold up comes the afore-mentioned windows does not recognize this device. This is odd given that there are five other drives of the exact same make
and model attached to the same hub still working. As I don't have all the slots in the hub filled I decide to change the slot and plug it into a different one. Same result. So then I decide to plug it into a 3.0 slot connected directly to the box, same result.
As a last try I then plug it into a 2.0 slot on the box, same result. So then I take it out and try it on the other two boxes and eventually the laptop...same result....

I now have nine of these contraptions all totally useless to me....yes I guess I could send em back to Seagate and Toshiba and Western Digital and they will replace em with a brand new one...clean as a whistle with my twenty years up the poop chute....

I have looked everywhere through Google trying to find someone or somebody with the same problem as me, surely I cannot be the only person in Australia that happens to keep on getting the duds.

I've had 2.0 drives that have lasted ten years or more and probably may have went another ten if I didn't keep so called upgrading....some of these that have failed on me are not even 3 months old. I even had one desktop 3.0 drive that I bought on the Wednesday
in Adelaide and by the time I had gotten it home after my son had copied some stuff onto it..it wouldn't work.

I have tried just about everything I've ever read on these forums, like using a different cable, Ive even pulled one of the portable to pieces to be able to use an attachment that I can plug it directly into a 3.0 slot and still nada....

My newest laptop is still under warranty and I have had that back to the supplier twice with a main hard drive failure which they have had to replace.

The reason why I am suggesting here that it may not be all windows fault is that my other laptop is still running windows seven and once a drive cacks it it wont show up in that either....I will say this though, I only have one drive that I use in that laptop
and that is still running well.

Now before everybody jumps down my throat I have checked thoroughly for viruses on all my boxes, and they all are clean. And in anycase I've never heard yet about a virus that can attack one hard drive only, given that all that is on there is music, just
like the other six.

Unless windows eight itself somehow manages to render a hard drive useless somehow then it has to be a fault in the manufacturing technology and that even though a drive might work perfectly for a week or two there is something there that the manufactures
are missing in their testing.

Like someone said earlier, maybe it is going to take some massively big law-suit from a huge company that has lost everything against somebody for them to realise that USB 3.0 is tainted and no good.

Do they still make 2.0 cause I am going back there and hopefully I can do it before I lose everything, even though it will take a good part of six months to copy back over whatever it is that I still may have left....

Like I said I don't expect any answers but thank you for taking the time to at least read this...

So I shut down, I am using a powered 9 port hub for most of the portables on this particular system (Pryon) which I have to power off so all the drives disappear else the computer just hangs at the boot screen until I have done this).

Sounds like my problem with my (USB 2.0) powered hub. After an update it was not recognized, hence nothing attached to it was seen, until I removed all USB hubs and controllers, including hidden ones, in Device Manager. ICIM
there is a connection with USB 3.0 in that that is the lone port on my Surface that I plug the hub into.

BTW to be extra sure about how those (registry) changes would work for me I also powered off and detached all USB devices, rebooted and only after the OS was back up did I start attaching things the way I wanted them. I don't know why updates play
such havoc with our devices. I also would like to know why none of the troubleshooters do what I did to make my devices start working again.

I have Sony Vaio SVE1512Y1ESI and after installing Windows 8.1, my usb 3.0 port was not functioning. This solution have worked for me. And I am fully shocked that Microsoft and Intel passes the ball to each other for this issue; remembering that these
companies were on the very line about usb 3.0 technology initiated. As a customer, we pay money for hardware and service. Thank you.

called Dell again , and basically , format machine and start again, this has for now sorted things for me , hope you all have the same luck. not saying this is the answer for everyone, but sometimes its quicker to just start again. for me it was.

I tried this fix but unfortunately it did not work. I do not think I could use the drivers you recommended because they were for series 8 boards and my board is series 7. Can I use the series 8 ones??? Anyhow, I got the latest for series 7 and followed your
instructions as best I could. When I went to load the driver files it told me that I did not have a valid driver. I compared the original edited driver files from the plugable fix with the edited ones based on the latest release and there was a fair bit of
difference although I did do the edits as instructed so I am not sure what it did not like.

I have 3 Seagate 4TB drives that were working fine for me a few weeks ago and now, they just will not work. I plug them in and hear the connect sound and then the icon comes up and within a minute, the icon is gone and I hear the disconnect sound. Normally
I get error code 43 but have seen 45 as well. I have tried a lot of fixes and no luck. What the heck did MS do to the drivers in the last update? Unfortunately I can not even seem to roll it back. Can anyone tell me what is the latest thinking on this fault?

I contacted MSi who makes my laptop and they were hopeless. They just told me to reinstall the system. Not a good option if you ask me.

Looking forward to hearing from anybody as to how I may sort this out.

Motherboard is an Asus P8B75-M/CSM.Re: "The USB 3.0 specification
has been implemented carelessly by both Microsoft and the hardware vendors."

I get that impressison, too. Drives are not seen at all or lost during file copies. My Seagate Slim USB3 disk comes and goes. One of my WD Passport disks is invisible on one of the USB3 connectors, but not others.

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